Team Force Talks Chevrolet and More

John Force Racing (JFR) has a proven track record of developing the next generation of professional drivers. Since 2005 five drivers, including all three of John Force’s daughters, have won rookie of the year honors as well as more than 50 NHRA national event titles. Force has also built a legacy of creating a brain-trust of crew chiefs throughout the past decade. It’s no wonder that even during these tough times he and Robert Hight were able to secure a partnership with Chevrolet.

The new season is well under way and while JFR hasn’t quite hit its stride yet, it will probably be little more than a matter of time before they start stringing together victories.

Prior to the Winternationals John and Robert talked about the deal with GM, the challenges of running a race team and more. Hearing it directly from them really gives you an idea of what it’s like to be in their shoes. It’s not all about the track. It’s a race even before you get there.

VP of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports for Chevrolet, Jim Campbell, on the deal with JFR: I am proud to announce that Chevrolet and John Force Racing are partnering in the NHRA Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series starting with the 2015 season. This multi-year agreement includes all three John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro Funny Cars as well as John Force Racing Top Fuel Dragster. John is a champion and a legend both on and off the track as a driver and as a team owner. John is a racer’s racer. He is a fierce competitor, and we are excited to welcome John and his team back to Chevrolet. He won his first race with Chevrolet. Looking forward to working with John, Robert, Courtney, Brittany, Adria and Ashley. On behalf of everyone at Chevrolet, I would like to introduce our partner John Force. John, welcome back.

John Force: Thank you Jim and everyone at General Motors and especially at Chevrolet. I got my first win in a Chevrolet, my first championship with NHRA, six overall with General Motors. I’m going back to my roots. My family is excited. My other partners were great to me and I know where my future goes. Auto Club of Southern California has stood by us with a five-year program with Robert Hight and Traxxas with Courtney and Mac Tools. Lucas Oil came on board…and then naturally Peak Antifreeze taking the lead of sponsoring the car that I will be driving. But at the end of the day, if you don’t have a manufacturer, you are in big trouble. Thanks to you [Jim Campbell] and your team and GM, I’m going to be driving a Chevrolet.

“You wouldn’t believe what we’ve been through to create this Camaro.”

Robert Hight: It is impossible to win in the NHRA championship series without a manufacturer. Over the past few years, Top Fuel and Funny Car has become so competitive that you need the backing of a major auto manufacturer. They give you new technology, and we are looking at Chevrolet and we are excited to work with their engineers to make our cars faster. If you look at their track record, they win in everything they do—IndyCar, NASCAR—and naturally, [in] 2014, if you look at the NHRA Pro Stock Series, it came down to two Chevrolet Camaros for the title. It’s exciting to become partners with some of the NHRA Pro Stock teams: Greg Anderson, Jason Line, Erica Enders-Stevens, the Gray family. Now we can call them our teammates.

John Force, on the of staying with an American manufacturer: Everybody wanted me to stay with Detroit, and I will be honest, I love my old partners—they were good to me—but GM was where I wanted to land. There are so many opportunities, and you know I’m a car salesman. My company is called John Force American Made in Indy where we build our race cars and our engine programs and all of our aero and everything that we do. It’s where I needed to land. So, my other partner was great, but this is a new relationship. I feel like a kid. I have my Chevrolet shirt on. I feel like I have been drafted from college into the pros. I go downstairs, I have Corvettes, I have Luminas, I have Camaros. What makes this transition so good [is that] I’m back to my roots. I’m back to where I started. I have history in my museum in Indy and in Yorba Linda, California. I got GM cars everywhere. I say I’m starting all over, I will rebuild, but basically this is an easy transition for us. Like Robert said, we know how to win. It’s not going to be easy; the competition is unbelievable out there, but we are ready for it.

On being a racer and a salesperson, John Force: We’re in the entertainment business and we entertain the fans both on and off the race track. The bottom line is NHRA gives us that ball diamond, that arena for us to go into and to entertain the youth with all of our brands that we have and the cars that they’ll drive when they grow up; so it’s a great opportunity. It’s a lot of work. It’s seven days a week.

Robert Hight: Like John said earlier, the racing part of it is easy. That’s the easy part. It’s doing the job with the sponsors so we can have the funding to be out there and race and help them sell their products. Auto Club wouldn’t sign a five-year deal with John Force Racing if they didn’t believe in NHRA Drag Racing, and the same with General Motors. They see a value with John Force Racing and NHRA, and that really makes me proud.

John Force: With our traveling road shows, we’ll be going places inside NHRA, outside NHRA, and to other events. We’ve been to the Indy 500. We’ve been to NASCAR races with Bruton Smith, and of course the dealerships. If at every town we can work the dealers and make that happen, we’re going to. That’s how we see once again not just on the race track by winning. And don’t get me wrong, there’s tough competition out there, but that’s our job and that’s what excites us. But working those dealers and selling all the brands in General Motors, and the truck lines, that’s what it’s all about. One thing that’s really cool is all of our partners, it’s a good relationship. The Chairman of the Board at Auto Club of Southern California, Thomas McKernan, is a big Chevy guy. Jim Campbell, you know this, he’s a Chevrolet guy in and out. He always wanted me. I can say it. He always wanted me with Chevrolet. Basically, we’re back in business.

John Force on sponsorship: One of the ways that we’ve made it financially strong is I just thought that I’m John Force and I’ve got this big machine and money was just going to fall out of the sky [laughs]. Let me tell you, it’s tough out there. Everybody evaluated me and evaluated my teams and my girls and basically we had to reinvent John Force Racing. We had to sit down and say, wait a minute. We’re not getting where we used to be. So it’s very simple: I looked at my accountant and I said, “That’s my money up to this. This is what I have. What do I need to do to make it, to be competitive, to build safety?” And we went back, and then we tried to cut new deals that were financially strong. In the middle of companies, a lot of them, having budgets that were already sold and we were able to put it together because the fact is, without money you can’t compete. You can compete, but it’s tough.

I’ve got to admit it.  My operation grew, with some sponsors, over 30 years. I’m still in the game, but change is good for them, so maybe change is good for us. I don’t question life.

Nobody owed me anything or my daughters or Robert Hight. You have to earn it. And we fight every day. And I pray along the road. And we made it. And that’s what’s most important. And now we go to work and start preaching the gospel for Peak and Lucas and Auto Club tracks. That’s what I do best. That’s what Robert does best. And my girls are learning the trade.

We’ll be out there in three SS Camaros and a Funny Car and we’ll be out there with a Top Fuel Funny Car. Brittany, that’s her claim to fame, fastest in the family in Top Fuel. But we’ve got a lot of work cut out for us. We’ve had a lot of changes in our programs. I’ve built a whole new race team, but we’ve built it from within because we had people. I’ve always had an A-B-C plan. And we had the young kids we were training to come up the ladder if anybody left us. Some did, (which) we’ve already replaced.

John Force on the Camaro: When it comes to the manufacturing side and helping us with our engine program and look, we don’t try to kid anybody. Our engine program that we build 90 percent of the pieces (for) in-house is the NHRA stock motor. We have to stay within rules and guidelines. It’s the same thing with the bodies that we run. And we’re staying within NHRA rules and specs. We’ll be able to deliver, but it’s going to take us years, you know what I mean? To make this transition starting now, we had to redesign; we had to do revamps. You wouldn’t believe what we’ve been through to create this Camaro. A lot of work went into it. Basically, it had to be modified to get to where we need to be. So, it’s NHRA-approved. It’s a Chevrolet; it’s a Camaro, and that’s all we need to know and we’re moving on.

John Force on the dragster: The dragster is a different animal. We’re running a Camaro body on it, naturally. We’ll be going out with our NHRA; with our power plant that we have that we build at John Force Racing, but we’ve got to make changes. We’ve already looked at designs and different stuff to fall within the rules. And we’ll be okay. We have a major sponsor we’re looking to announce. There are three or four that we’re talking with, but we’ll get there. They all want to be a part of John Force Racing.

Robert Hight on the challenges: Well, it’s not getting any easier, especially in the Funny Car class. We won half the races last year with our three Funny Cars. But, we didn’t win when we needed to, right down to the wire; so, we’ve got some new teams. Obviously John’s got a brand-new team. My team is intact. Courtney’s team is intact. We were both very competitive all year long. We’ve just got to get John’s car up to speed, and I believe with Mike Neff’s help and all three teams working together, that we’re going to be fine. We’ve hired a new guy to work with Todd Smith on the dragster. That car went to some finals last year and [got] real close to winning some races. So, in the countdown, I believe that Brittany’s going to win some races this year and all three of our Funny Cars will definitely be in contention for the championship, and hopefully, that dragster will be, too.

John Force on personnel: We made a lot of changes in personnel. We have to stay within a budget and nobody knows that better than Dean Antonelli. I mean, he’s a crew chief. He could run any one of these cars, but right now, I needed a guy who could over look and make sure that my team stayed within budget. We’re also training new kids coming up through the ranks, and we’ll even be doing releases before Pomona on the young kids that are moving into these higher positions and taking John Force Racing’s next generation to the next level… .

Dean understands the race car. I talked to some of the manufacturers, and they said the biggest problem you have [is] you get a salesman, the greatest salesman in the world, if he doesn’t know an NHRA race car, he’d sell the wrong parts to the wrong guy, the guys at the race track. So, Dean Antonelli will be at every race. He’ll be out there with our cars, naturally as back up, but any parts we sell to any team, he’ll be sure that they have… . He’s very key at John Force Racing. He’s a personal friend. He was a young kid when he come here, and we’re working together to keep John Force Racing alive.

NHRA President, Tom Compton, on the importance of JFR to NHRA: …That is an understatement, how important John Force is. John Force, I think everyone would agree, is synonymous with NHRA drag racing. He is NHRA drag racing. He transcends all the other motor sports as well. I’ve been with him to an IndyCar race, to NASCAR races, and he is mobbed even there in those series. He is probably arguably, probably not even arguably, the greatest ambassador our sport has ever known. Not just for NHRA but for his sponsors and for JFR.

I can’t say enough about John. He is one of the hardest working people I have ever met.  He mentioned earlier he was in Detroit last week, then in Florida doing things. He never stops—never. He is a pleasure to work with as well.

Tom Compton on the impact of GM on NHRA: A company like GM was forced to step out of it a few years back. But there is a long, rich history with NHRA and General Motors, as well as some of the teams. To have them coming back into the sport—every year there are more and more announcements because they do seem to value NHRA. It is great to have them back.

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